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Internet Censorship Bill Introduced
By Stephen Lendman
6-7-11

During his presidential campaign, Obama pledged to "(s)upport
the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition
on the Internet."

In fact, he failed to deliver on every major promise
made, including the last frontier of press freedom, protected from censorship
and corporate control.

Post-9/11, both he and Bush expanded intrusive government
surveillance, including Internet monitoring of personal communications.
On April 1, 2009 the Senate introduced two bills, endangering a free and
open Internet - S. 773: Cybersecurity Act of 2009 and S. 778 to establish
a White House cybersecurity czar.

Both measures included provisions to give federal authorities
unprecedented Internet control by:

-- federalizing critical infrastructure, shifting power
away from providers and users to Washington; and

-- letting the president shut down Internet traffic for
alleged "national security" reasons or during a claimed "emergency."

Neither measure passed. Had they, personal privacy and
security would have been compromised through one provision alone - by giving
the Commerce Secretary access to all relevant data relating to critical
infrastructure networks without restriction.

In other words, privacy and judicial review protections
guaranteed under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Privacy
Protection Act, and financial privacy regulations no longer would apply.

Under an administration appointed czar, other provisions
would have let the executive shut down parts of the Internet, as well as
businesses and organizations, not complying with national emergency declared
orders.

In addition, on September 20, 2010, S. 3804: Combating
Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced. Its purpose
- to destroy Internet freedom one domain at a time, by requiring their
registrars/registries, ISPs, DNS (domain name system) providers, and others
to block users from reaching certain websites.

On November 18, 2010, COICA was reported to committee,
then stalled without coming to the Senate floor for a vote.

Various other ways of subverting Net Neutrality have
also circulated, including giving cable and telecom giants more control,
letting them establish higher-priced lanes (two Internets) and censor unwanted
content, destroying Internet freedom in the process.

An October 2007 global measure, overriding national sovereignty,
also threatens Net Neutrality, consumer privacy, and civil liberties. Called
the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), secret negotiations seek
to subvert them, ostensibly to protect copyrighted intellectual property,
including films, photos, and songs. ACTA remains a work in progress, but
developments going forward bear watching, especially if a global agreement
is reached.

On May 27, the Foundation for Free Information Infrastructure
(FFII) said the European Commission published a "final" ACTA
text with few changes from its last known version. Since introduced, Western
media, especially America's, have reported virtually nothing about this
destructive measure, those backing it wish to enact with little or no public
disclosure, let alone input over something this important.

Reported to committee on May 26, it was placed on the
Senate calendar for a floor vote yet to occur.

Deceptively calling it a measure against selling copyrighted
content and counterfeit goods, Leahy said it:

"will protect the investment American companies
make in developing brands and creating content and will protect the jobs
associated with those investments."

In fact, it's a smoke screen to introduce new censorship
provisions that violate First Amendment freedoms, without which all others
are at risk.

Like most others in Congress, Leahy is no democrat. He
supports imperial wars, Wall Street pillage, corporate-run healthcare,
agribusiness-empowering bills, and numerous other anti-populist measures
harming millions while pretending to help them.

In September 2010, he introduced COICA. At the time,
the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) Richard Esguerra said "if
there's anything we've learned about efforts to re-write copyright law
to target 'piracy' online, it's that they are likely to have unintended
consequences."

In fact, COICA and PROTECT IP run roughshod over First
Amendment rights by censoring speech and chilling other freedoms.

On June 6, EFF alerted its followers to urge their congressional
representatives to "reject this dangerous bill," calling it "a
threatening sequel to last year's COICA" measure explained above.

If enacted, PROTECT IP will give federal authorities
"unprecedented power to attack the Internet's domain name system (DNS),"
by:

It includes "a private right of action for intellectual
property owners (as well as government to) seek injunctions against websites
(allegedly) 'dedicated to infringing activities' in addition to court orders
against third parties providing services to those sites."

Its language also adds new third-party provider categories,
including "interactive computer services" and "servers of
sponsored links," requiring they no longer serve targeted sites.

Moreover, "new language no longer requires explicit
action on the part of domain name registries and registrars," but
still covers unauthorized domain name system server operators.

In addition, the measure requires government or private
plaintiffs to identify infringing persons or entities before action is
taken against a domain name. Nonetheless, doing so falls far short of protecting
speech with plenty of wiggle room to violate it.

As a result, Phillips called PROTECT IP "no improvement
on COICA." Moreover, in many ways it's worse, and may produce defensive
countermeasures, including establishing alternative servers with total
Internet access, creating possible new security vulnerabilities.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
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